Honda Boosts U.S. Sales Target for 2012, CR-V on Pace to “Demolish” Previous Sales Record

It’s been a long way back on the road to recovery for Honda. The Japanese automaker had one of its toughest years on record in 2011 after the tsunami and earthquakes ravaged its home country. The natural disaster brought Honda’s vehicle production to a halt and as a result, sales sagged throughout the year and early into 2012. At the beginning of this year, Honda estimated it would move around 1.02 million units in 2012, but it has now increased that number to 1.3 million units.Honda decided to adjust its sales figures after seeing the market is now a little stronger than originally anticipated. Acura is still on pace to hit 180,000 deliveries in the United States, the same number estimated at the beginning of the year. According to WardsAuto, Honda has seen sales skyrocket 18.5 percent, with 732,165 units moved in the first seven months of 2012. Through the same period last year, Honda had sold 617,862 units. The strengthening market combined with Honda running back at full strength has put the Japanese back on track with where it was before the global recession brought everything crashing down back in 2008. Currently, Honda is posting its best results since 2007 and 2008 when it averaged over 1.5 and 1.2 million units moved, respectively.Dealers are finally returning to normal numbers after running on a severely reduced inventory earlier this year. In February, Honda had just 60 percent of its inventory that it would usually have available at that time of year. Half a dozen months later, Honda has returned to normal operating levels and sales across the board have continually risen. Leading the charge for Honda is the Civic sedan and coupe, which was redesigned last year, with 193,175 units sold this far this year, up 32.5 percent. Sales are only expected to continue to climb as Honda has promised to retool the Civic’s interior, something that has been the point of chastising in the media.Besides the Civic and its busy year sales-wise so far, the CR-V is on pace to “demolish” its old sales record set back in 2007 with 219,000 units sold. Through the first seven months of 2012, the CR-V has found 167,236 new homes, which is good for a 33.9 percent increase over the same time last year.What say you? Is Honda on the road back to its glory days? Tell us what you think in the comment section below.Source: WardsAuto

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